Track Your Work On Your Mac

There’s an old saying that I subscribe to and apply to a number of aspects in my life. “Performance measured, is performance improved.”

I take that to mean the obvious. If we track what we do then we can improve what we do because we have a way to measure what we do and compare what we do. Alright, that’s actually more complicated than I thought it would be, but the idea sticks. Here’s a way to record your work time on a Mac so you can make more money or become more productive.

Track Time, Get Money

The problem with time trackers is this. Too many just track todo items or tasks, while others track time for billing purposes. Both have their place, but that often means two apps to manage. Here’s one that does both. One app for anything that needs to be timed and tracked. It’s called Work Tracker.

Here’s a list of sample items being tracked. Despite the name, not everything that can be tracked is work related. It shouldn’t be. We’re dealing with time and productivity here.

Whatever it is that needs to have time tracked, Work Tracker tracks it, but instead of a tiny list of items, spreadsheet style, you get a highly visible list of items being tracked. Work, play, whatever. If you want to track the time, this is the way.

For example, use Work Tracker to track time devoted to a work project. That makes it easy to track expenses, and add whatever documentation you need. Add a name for each item, set the timer as needed, view the total time for each one. But note that you can see many items on screen at the same time.

While Work Tracker seems aimed totally at work projects or tasks within projects, I find it perfectly usable to track anything I do during the day. Why? After using the app just a week or so you find a quick and visual way to see where your time is going. Just that knowledge alone makes your more productive.

The most obvious uses are projects and tasks so you can account for your time and that makes Work Tracker perfect for anyone who gets paid for their time. There’s an option to add a dollar amount per hour for specific tasks and the calculations are made automatically.

Work Tracker also lets you setup a time limit so you can work within a budget. The History button displays what you’ve done recently. Jobs can be planned daily, weekly, or for a specific time period, a good way to track your personal projects, but even better when you need to track time for a project where you get paid.

Work Tracker is straightforward to use, not intimidating, and captures plenty of data easily viewed with a click.

Caveats? Yes. A couple. The most obvious is Work Tracker is Mac only. There’s no iPhone or iPad version with data sync. The app is not expensive and priced a bit lower than others with fewer features, but there’s no try-before-you-buy option. Pay up to try.

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About Jack Miller

I work for a US technology company in Paris, France and switched from Windows PCs to the Mac 20 years ago. My wife said it would improve our marriage, give us more friends, and reduce stress. I guess that two out of three isn't bad. Read more of my articles here.

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